Woynaroski Lab: Biobehavioral Approaches in NeuroDevelopment (BAND)
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Meet The Team
Lab Director
Tiffany Woynaroski, PhD, CCC-SLP
Assistant Professor in Hearing and Speech Sciences
BS, Psychology, Valparaiso University (2002)
MS, Speech-Language Pathology, Vanderbilt University (2009)
PhD, Hearing and Speech Science, Vanderbilt University (2014)
Tiffany received her PhD from Vanderbilt University’s Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences in December 2014 after an extensive clinical career working with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) as an early interventionist/parent educator, speech language pathologist, and autism consultant. She has authored 55 published or in-press peer-reviewed articles, 2 book chapters, and over 110 presentations at academic conferences.
Research Staff
Catherine Bush, MA, CCC-SLP
Research Coordinator
Over the past 23 years as a Speech Language Pathologist, Catherine has primarily worked with young children in early intervention and in clinical translational research settings. Originally from Cookeville, TN, her Bachelor’s degree is in Music Therapy, and she earned her Master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Catherine’s research experience includes working with children with Down syndrome, toddlers at increased likelihood for autism, and children with Developmental Language Disorders. Catherine’s research interests include working with caregivers to support their children’s language development. You can learn more about her work here.
Madison Clark, BA
Research Assistant
Madison is a Research Assistant in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences. She graduated from Vanderbilt with a bachelor’s in Neuroscience and Medicine, Health, and Society in 2024, and plans to pursue medical school in the future. Madison’s research interests include language and communication development and audiovisual multisensory integration in infant siblings of autistic children.
Jacob Feldman, PhD, CCC-SLP
Research Fellow
Jacob is a research fellow in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences. He completed his bachelors in Communication Sciences and Disorders and Psychology at the Pennsylvania State University, his masters in Speech-Language Pathology at Vanderbilt University, and his PhD in Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University.
He is interested in early identification of autism spectrum disorder and how audiovisual multisensory integration may explain variance in core autism symptoms and higher level factors, such as language and literacy. He has been an author on 16 peer-reviewed publications, 1 clinical tool, and 64 conference presentations.
Bahar Keçeli-Kaysili, PhD
Clinical/Translational Research Coordinator
After two years of extensive experience as a special educator working with young children on the autism spectrum as well as other developmental conditions and their families, Bahar pursued an academic career. She received her Ph.D. in Special Education from Ankara University, Turkey in 2012 and then went on to complete her postdoctoral research fellowship at Vanderbilt University. Her graduate work in special education aimed to understand the relationship of theory of mind and language in children with autism spectrum disorders. Her postdoctoral study focused on the foundations of spoken language acquisition and early communication, and language interventions. Her goal as a researcher is to identify (a) the relationship of theory of mind (ToM) and language in autistic children, (b) early predictors of language outcomes and the mechanisms by which these predictors promote communication and language in autistic children, (c) sensory responsiveness and its relation to later language skills.
She has been an author on 18 peer-reviewed publications and 36 conference presentations.
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Insung Kim, BS
Research Assistant
Insung is a Research Assistant in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor's in Neuroscience and Child Development. Insung's research interests include neurodevelopmental disorders, drug discovery, autism interventions, and health disparities. He plans to attend medical school and continue to pursue these interests through a healthcare lens.
Doctoral Students
Jennifer Markfeld, MS, CF-SLP
Graduate Research Assistant, Hearing and Speech Sciences
Jennifer is a fourth year PhD candidate in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences. She completed her bachelors in Communication Sciences and Disorders from James Madison University and her masters in Speech-Language Pathology at Vanderbilt University.
Jennifer’s research interests include caregiver-infant interaction, infant language development, and interventions designed to address risk factors that contribute to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. You can learn more about her work here.
Grace Pulliam, BS
Graduate Research Assistant, Neuroscience
Grace is a second year PhD student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program. She graduated from Vanderbilt in 2022 with a bachelors in Neuroscience, MHS, and Communication of Science and Tech.
Grace’s research interests include relations between audiovisual multisensory integration and ASD symptomatology. She is also interested in investigating links between preference for audiovisual temporal synchrony and early education outcomes.
Undergraduate Students
Drina Agojci
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Drina is a junior majoring in Medicine, Health, and Society with a double minor in Economics and Business in the college of Arts and Science Honors program. Her research interests include studying early language development and interventions designed to improve language acquisition for autistic children and children with other neurodevelopmental conditions.
Kelsea McClurkin
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Kelsea is a junior double majoring in Neuroscience and Child Development. Her interests include identifying how early brain patterns can impact later language outcomes through sensory responsiveness to provide intervention that aids in language development at earlier ages. She is also interested in outreach to underrepresented populations to increase diversity and representation in research. Kelsea is a part of the Maximizing Access to Research (MARC) program, a research community dedicated to providing access to research opportunities to diverse and historically underrepresented undergraduates in STEM.
Ellie Pazol
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Ellie is a senior majoring in Medicine, Health and Society and minoring in Special Education. Her research interests include decreased sound tolerance in autistic and non-autistic adults, access to autism diagnoses and services for neurodivergent youth, and sensory integration therapy.
Ava Schwartz
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Ava is a senior double majoring in Neuroscience and Medicine, Health, and Society in the College of Arts and Science Honors Program. She is interested in studying relations between early oscillatory power, sensory responsiveness differences, and later mental health in children at a high likelihood for autism. She will be investigating these associations in her upcoming honors thesis in Neuroscience.
Leela Waterford
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Leela is a junior majoring in Child Studies. Her research interests include developmental delays in language and interventions to improve language acquisition for children in culturally and linguistically diverse communities.